Maximum Ride: Back in Action
by ChasingHeaven
Summary: Max and the Flock are all grown up. Things have been quiet for the past few years, but recently they've been getting anonymous threats. Will the Flock survive their hardest battle yet?


The sticky hands of Danika Ride tugged at the hem of my jeans as I flipped over the burnt pancake.

It was safe to say that over the years, I hadn't improved my cooking skills. Even with the arrival of my daughter Dani.

I walked over and picked up the phone, quickly dialing one of the 5 numbers I knew by heart.

"Hello?"

"Iggy, how much would I have to pay you to come over here and make me and Dani some pancakes?" I asked, grinning at the sound of my friend's voice.

"Well considering I'm in France right now, I'll take 300." I heard him laugh and I smiled.

Iggy was on vacation with his current girlfriend, Quinn. She was a beautiful blonde girl with green eyes and a light-hearted personality. But Iggy hadn't told her about his wings yet.

"I miss you," I said, holding the phone between my ear and shoulder as I put the pancake on a plate. I leaned against the counter as I waited for it to cool.

"I miss you too, Max," he replied. "Hey, I'll have to catch you later, me and Quinn are about to go get some dinner."

I filled up one of my cheeks with air and let it out. "Yeah, alright. Have fun," I said, then I hung up.

My flock was scattered. Iggy was in France, Nudge was studying fashion in New York, Gazzy was still living with Fang and I and Angel was rooming with Nudge in New York.

I missed them. A lot.

Once the pancake had cooled, I picked Dani up and walked her over to the couch. I sat down with her on my lap and fed her the pancake in little pieces.

She had just turned 2 four months ago and she was already the prettiest little girl I'd ever seen. She had Fang's smoldering, dark eyes and my wavy light brown hair. The coverts of her wings were black and her rimages were white with a few tan and brown feathers here and there. They were fluffy with mostly down feathers. I couldn't wait to see her when she started flying.

"At least you like my cooking, huh?" I said, stroking her hair as she finished the pancake.

She gave me a big, cheesy smile in return.

"Hey, beautiful," said a voice behind me. I jumped up and clutched Dani to my chest, turning to see who it was.

With a sigh of relief, I realized it was Fang who had just come home from work. He worked as an architect here in Chicago.

When my relief faded, anger replaced it. "Fang, quit sneaking up on me! We're not kids anymore!"

Fang walked over towards me, but I was mad. It was one of his favorite things to do when we were younger and I didn't mind it so much. But now that we were we were nearly 21, it was starting to bug me.

"Stop. I mean it and where were you? I thought you got off work three hours ago. Who said you could stop answering your phone?" I shouted. Dani had started to whimper, so I set her down on the couch.

I was about to ask Fang where he had been again, but he pulled me closed and gave me kiss, which stole away my anger, as well as my breath.

"I was out getting you these," he said with a smile as he gestured towards the door. Angel walked in, carrying a drawstring bag and Nudge followed.

"Oh my God," was all I could whisper before a smiled attacked my face.

I ran over to them. Angel had let her hair grow and she had it pulled to the side in a low ponytail. She was 14 now and she had definitely picked up some fashion sense from Nudge.

"Hey Max," she giggled as I smothered her in a hug.

"Angel," I said, squeezing the breath out of her, then I looked to Nudge.

"And you," I said, hugging her, too.

Nudge had cut her dark hair and gotten it permed, so she wore it in a sleek pixie bob. She was bundled in a trendy black trench coat, jeans and a newsboy cap. It was October and it was starting to get cold outside.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, stepping away as they started taking off their jackets.

"I have Monday off from school so I figured we'd come down and say hi to you guys," Nudge replied, giving me a smile as she let her wings out a little to let them cool off from the flight.

Angel smiled and walked over to the couch to play with Dani. "Max! She's getting so big!" she said excitedly.

I grinned and crossed my arms over my chest. Seeing my baby of the Flock playing with my real baby was heart breaking. I couldn't believe we'd all grown up so fast.

It started when I got pregnant at 18. It had been an accident, but we weren't too worried about it since we hadn't seen anything from the whitecoats for a few months at the least.

I got my mom to help with the delivery, since I didn't want to go to the hospital. Once we settled in back at the house, the Flock helped take care of Dani. It was perfect. Then, taking advantage of the break from threats and danger, Nudge decided to go to college, Iggy met Quinn at a local supermarket, Fang and I wanted to settle down somewhere and you know the rest.

Gazzy came out from the den where he had been playing on the computer. "Nudge!" he said happily, giving her a tight hug.

Gazzy still had his endearing spiked blonde hair and big blue eyes. His shoulders had broadened a little and his voice had gotten deeper. Not to mention, he had shot up like some kind of mutant (no joke intended) and now he was the same height as Fang.

"Well, uh, do you guys want to go to dinner?" I asked, thinking the girls must be hungry and I hadn't gone shopping recently.

Angel nodded. "Yeah, sure," Nudge agreed with a smile.

If there's one thing I hate more than being in a plane, it's driving.

How can people sit in them for hours at a time, stuck in traffic and stay sane? Going downtown at 6 o'clock at night made me bang my head against the steering wheel of our Grand Cherokee more than once. Especially when I knew we could just get out of the car and fly to the restraunt in 10 minutes.

I'll spare you the gory details of a frustrated me, a loud Nudge and a cranky Dani crammed in a car for 2 hours and skip to when we got to the restraunt.

It was a small pizzeria I'd been going to for the past year. I still don't know why I put up with the traffic, but I think it has something to do with the incredible handmade pizza or the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I still have an addiction to those.

We took our seats and Fang ordered us 5 pizzas. 2 cheese, 2 pepperoni, 1 garbage.

I held Dani on my lap, since this low-key place didn't have hi-chairs. While we waited for our pizzas, Nudge told us _more_ stories about college. I tried to be polite and listen, but after that drive, all I wanted was silence and the smell of a pizzeria.

A tall man wearing a tan trench coat and a fedora hat walked in and took a seat at another table. Considering old habits die hard and he was the one of the 3 other customers in the restraunt, I examined him carefully out of the corner of my eye.

Our pizzas finally came and my Flock minus 1 started eating. I fed Dani small bites that I ripped off my own pizza, all the while keeping the mysterious customer in my line of sight.

Something wasn't right about him…

Fang, who had his back to the suspicious man, gave me a slight nod to tell me he was keeping tabs on him, too.

I tapped Angel three times and without skipping a beat in her conversation with Gazzy, I could tell she was reading the man's thoughts as I had asked her to.

After a few moments, she shook her head at me. _I can't get anything from him, Max, _she told me through her thoughts.

Now I was starting to panic. Angel could read any human being's thoughts unless they were being intentionally guarded. Forgive me if any of you guard your thoughts when you go out in public just because there might be a mind reader nearby, but who the heck does that?

I was about to ask for the check and a box to take home whatever was left of the pizza. I was ready to book it out of there before mystery guy over there decided to pull something. But before the waiter came, the strange guy stood up, leaving an untouched slice of pizza on his plate and a $5 dollar bill on the table.

My whole body tensed as he passed so I was ready for anything, but he passed without even a glance at our table.

"Uh, Max…" Gazzy said.

I looked down at the edge of the table closest to the aisle where a curled little piece of paper sat teetering in the air stirred by the man's passing.

With a glance around the restaurant, I picked it up and read the scrawled note.

_What size dog crate would you prefer for Danika?_

I looked up and met Fang's eyes. I guess the horror in my eyes was enough to translate to 'Let's get the hell out of here' because he gathered everything up and rushed us out the door, leaving $30 on the table and the restraunt I wasn't likely to revisit.

Chapter 2 on the way!


End file.
